What if you bought…
Every position on the Sixty-40 wheel, with the hindsight answer: what $1,000 would be worth today from each starting year, and whether it beat the S&P 500.
Each row: first year in our data · what $1,000 from that year is worth today, as a multiple. Green beat the S&P 500, amber gained but trailed it, red lost money.
US Tech
American technology companies: hardware, software, chips, internet platforms and the dot-com names that did not make it. The sector holds both the biggest winners on the wheel and some of its most famous wipeouts.
US Finance
American banks, brokers, card networks, insurers and holding companies. Several of them nearly disappeared in 2008; a few did.
US Consumer
Retailers, restaurant chains, brands and media companies that sell directly to households in the United States.
US Industry
Aerospace and defence, machinery, railroads, logistics, utilities and oil: the companies that build, move and power things.
US Health
Pharmaceutical groups, biotech firms and health insurers, from century-old drug makers to companies built around a single product.
World
Companies listed outside the United States, with a strong Dutch and European contingent alongside large names from Asia and elsewhere.
Commodities
Metals, energy, grains and soft commodities, priced per ounce, barrel, bushel or ton. They produce no earnings, so the price is the whole story.
Crypto
Coins and exchange tokens, from the largest cryptocurrencies to the ones that collapsed or turned out to be fraud.
Real estate
Houses and apartments in individual cities, a farmland reference price and a handful of listed property trusts.
Countries
Broad stock-market indexes for individual countries, valued in US dollars, including the S&P 500 index fund the game measures everything against.
Bonds & cash
Government and corporate bonds, savings accounts and plain cash: the low-risk end of the wheel, plus a few bonds that were anything but.
Alternatives
Collectibles priced from widely reported sale prices: watches, cars, cards, toys, wine and handbags.
Hype
Meme stocks, fads and pandemic darlings: positions that were famous for a moment, whatever happened to them next.